www.TLHjournal.com Literary Herald ISSN: 2454-3365 An International Refereed English e-Journal Impact Factor: 2.24 (IIJIF) A New Strategy for Child Development: A Study on Montessori Educational System and the Film Taare Zameen Par VINU C. JAMES M.Phil Scholar CMS College Coimbatore Abstract The child development is expandable and its potential may differ with the environment. Every child is different and hence, special. The distribution curve shows that most of the children who undergo dyslexia seem to be average in many traits. Few children deviate from the generally accepted norms in many ways. These deviations may give rise to multi factorial problems of adjustments at home, school and social setting and thus, leads to addition of problems in divergence. Deviation can be in terms of physical, social, emotional and mental characteristics. In the film Taare Zameen Par, the director Aamir Khan tried to disclose the present scenario of education. The director enhances his vision and mission through the film and he teaches about unconventional Montessori teaching. Teaching should not force the student to conform to the existing pattern of the world. The students should be equipped to think out of the box and define their own goals instead of fitting their ideas with the prevailing ones. Curricula and assessment should be flexible and encourage critical thinking on the part of the students so that they become compassionate and sensitive human beings. Keywords: Child development, dyslexia, traits, Montessori teaching, curricula Vol. 2, Issue 4 (March 2017) Dr. Siddhartha Sharma Page 595 Editor-in-Chief www.TLHjournal.com Literary Herald ISSN: 2454-3365 An International Refereed English e-Journal Impact Factor: 2.24 (IIJIF) A New Strategy for Child Development: A Study on Montessori Educational System and the Film Taare Zameen Par VINU C. JAMES M.Phil Scholar CMS College Coimbatore “The aim of education is life itself, not preparation for life.” Maria Montessori Taare Zameen Par or Like Stars on Earth is a 2007 Indian drama film produced and directed by Aamir Khan. Darsheel Safary stars as 8-year-old Ishaan, and Aamir Khan acts his art teacher. Creative director and writer Amole Gupte primarily developed the idea with his wife Deepa Bhatia, who served as the film's editor. The film discovers the life and imagination of Ishaan, an 8-year-old dyslexic child. Although he excels in art, his pitiable academic performance directs his parents to send him to a boarding school. Ishaan's new art teacher suspects that he is dyslexic and helps him to triumph over his disability. Nandakishor Awasthi, the protagonist‟s father in the film gives education to his son as mechanized, repeated and only for preparation of life. However, the method of education given by the substitute art teacher Ram Shankar Nikumh (Aamir Khan) is entirely different from that of Ishaan‟s father. Nikumbh acted as a perfect, compassionate, sincere, heart touching teacher and he believes that life itself is an education process. Education is not only a process of high ranks and status but also a process of making man a real human being. In Taare Zameen Par, the child Ishaan Awasthi is ridiculed at school and at home for not being able to write and read properly. Eight-year-old Ishaan is a happy-go-lucky child with a fertile imagination that can see fish flying but fails to grasp the difference between B and D. He has development dyslexia. He seems to be of average intelligence and his Vol. 2, Issue 4 (March 2017) Dr. Siddhartha Sharma Page 596 Editor-in-Chief www.TLHjournal.com Literary Herald ISSN: 2454-3365 An International Refereed English e-Journal Impact Factor: 2.24 (IIJIF) spontaneous speech is fluent and meaningful. From the very beginning of the film, his facial expression appears very innocent, but it is tinged with stupidity. Most of his mental trauma is expressed in a rigid way of facial expressions. In fact, though he is „stupid,‟ he has the intelligence to get his letter requesting absence from school written by his elder brother Yohan. Ishaan cannot read, and his writing contains several spelling mistakes and the use of inappropriate letters and words. He is frustrated and this is evident through his behavior at times kicking flowerpots when other children on the playground beat him up. However, he has no other conduct disorder. He shows his alienation in his paintings especially in the flicker book that shows he was separated from the adult world, the world of facts. His apparent hyperactivity (shown in a scene of his taking a shower) is perhaps a normal phenomenon in children of his age. When Ishaan understood that his father Awasthi wants him to join a boarding school, he started having nightmares and the very thought of being separated from his mother traumatized him. The shock of alienation disturbed him always. Even his mother for a certain extent supported his father‟s decision, since she felt it was for his own good. Ishaan undergoes mental agony and frustration. He certainly lacks motor skills (as is known to occur in dyslexia) as he cannot knot his tie or tie shoelaces properly. His inability to perform simple arithmetic is a bit of a puzzle; this is unusual in dyslexia. When asked to solve his three times table, he confidently picks up his pencil and sees a war of planets on the firmament of his mind where planet 3 smashes into planet 6 and beats it into smithereens. Naturally, the answer of 3*6 is 3 for our little genius. At school he goes through a series of embarrassing events that crushes his self-confidence altogether. The repressive incidents take him away from his fantasies and imaginations and ultimately it shatters him. According to the critical thinker Reshma Parveen “The film Taare Zameen Par by Aamir Khan has undoubtedly attracted the attention of educationists, teachers, parents, administrators and others interested in education. It is almost the first film, especially in Urdu/ Hindi speaking context, which may contribute to the educational theory and practice tremendously. A film can change the thinking, attitudes, behaviours, and practice of people easier than any other technique. The film gives some very important messages for parents and teachers alike. The role of the parents shown in the film is a typical role existing in our Vol. 2, Issue 4 (March 2017) Dr. Siddhartha Sharma Page 597 Editor-in-Chief www.TLHjournal.com Literary Herald ISSN: 2454-3365 An International Refereed English e-Journal Impact Factor: 2.24 (IIJIF) society, may be in a different form. For instance, most fathers believe that they are responsible for earning money and therefore the internal responsibility of the house including child development is of the wife. This is a very dangerous notion, because the children may develop an indifferent attitude towards their fathers. Aamir Khan‟s Taare Zameen Par takes an empathetic look at the denial of opportunities to children affected with learning disabilities, the resulting despair in these children, and lucidly drives the need for understanding these special children by adopting appropriate learning strategies. Aamir Khan‟s debut directorial film Taare Zameen Par gives the child more footage and captures every emotion deftly thereby focusing on its root cause and maintaining its significance throughout the movie. A number of sequences left the people misty eyed and felt deep attachment to the child. The lyrics of the songs are sheer poetry and contribute to the narrative. The film Taare Zameen Par interconnects most of Montessori methods in order to ensure an empathetic look at the denial of opportunities to children affected with learning disability. Government departments and NGOs dealing with special schools think that “Special Education is Inclusive Education,” so they turn to special educationists to operationalise the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act from six to fourteen. The Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI), a regulatory body of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (MoSJE), says that only special teachers can teach children with disabilities (CWD) which is contrary towards the art teacher‟s arrival and teaching. According to the RCI, if an uncertified person teaches disabled children, it constitutes a criminal offence. Regular teachers can never teach disabled children if they do not get an RCI certificate. This is a violation of the RTE Act and tedious to forget. The RCI has to be amended, special education demystified and the qualifications prescribed in the model rules and regulations for RTE schools should be applied to “all children” so that teaching them does not need a separate certification from the RCI. Learning disability is a disorder that is caused by innate or family background. According to one estimate,12.5 percent of school children have learning problems of varying degrees. Boards such as the CBSE and ICSE offer concessions to LD students like extra hour to complete the paper, s scribe and waiving of the second language apart from allowing Vol. 2, Issue 4 (March 2017) Dr. Siddhartha Sharma Page 598 Editor-in-Chief www.TLHjournal.com Literary Herald ISSN: 2454-3365 An International Refereed English e-Journal Impact Factor: 2.24 (IIJIF) calculators for mathematics exam. While many schools use this facility, some are hesitant to use the same fearing stigmatization. The Andra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamilnadu Boards of Secondary Education too offer concessions to students suffering from dyslexia. While one is not sure of the extent to which schools actually use these concessions and their awareness on this aspect, there is a need to sensitize the teaching community to the needs of the children with learning disability (LD).